If you live in a place where Jello is the official state snack, right in the heart of the Jello Belt, you've got to have some kind of jello salad for Thanksgiving dinner, right? I've never really been a fan of Jello, despite being a life-long Utah resident, so keep that in mind when I tell you how much I loved this salad. It tasted much better than I ever imagined Jello could taste, and with cranberries, celery, and pecans, this tasted like a salad not a dessert. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I couldn't get a really good photo even though I tried twice. Anyone who understands more than I do about digitial photography, I'd love to know why the camera wouldn't focus correctly. Maybe the Jello was just too shiny? But even with the slightly fuzzy photo, you can see that besides tasting great, this was a beautiful cranberry color.

If you're a South Beach Dieter, using sugar free Jello is essential here, but even with that change, there's still some sugar in the canned cranberry sauce. However, pecans, celery, and sugar-free jello are all good South Beach choices, Thanksgiving only comes once a year, and this is something you won't eat a huge amount of, so I'd still consider it a good holiday option as a once-in-a-while treat.

I found this recipe in the Southern Living Christmas Cookbook, which I bought when it appeared in the faculty room at school as part of a book promotion, and I highly recommend this book. It features all kinds of interesting looking recipes, including some very, very easy recipes for seasonal holiday dishes that I thought looked great.

Combine gelatin and boiling water in a glass bowl, stirring until all gelatin is dissolved. Chill until mixture is the consistency of unbeaten egg white (about 45 minutes in refrigerator.) Stir in cranberry sauce, chopped pecans, and diced celery.

Spray square glass casserole dish with non-stick spray or oil lightly with vegetable oil. Spoon mixture into dish, cover, and chill until firm, about 3 hours. Serve as a salad, on a bed of lettuce or arugula if desired.

I don't have a lot of time to enter food blog events, but I didn't want to miss the first time Anna from Morsels and Musings ever hosted an event, and this salad is perfect for her theme of Festive Food Fair. If you want to join in and make a festive food for the event, you have until December 1 to send the link to Anna.

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Kalyn,I agree, it's a very interesting recipe, after your explanation I do want to try! But I have no idea why your the first photo came out of focus, could it be the reflective surface (Jello) confusing the sensor (just my guessing). Another thing, I'll be on vacation for weeks so will miss a couple rounds of WHB. Let me say Happy Thanksgiving to you in here first :D

Humph. I think Minnesota and Iowa can give Utah a run for its money. And I remember a TIME Magazine story profiling the state of Iowa during the pre-caucus months of some presidential election and IT said that Iowans ate the most jello per capita in the whole country. And ... every Minnesota/Iowa churchbook has salad sections that are 100% jello recipes. Humph. ; - ) PS Didn't even think of jello for my own Thanksgiving collection, might have to slip in one more!

Anna, the Utah State Legislature actually voted to make Jello the official snack,and Bill Cosby came for the big event.

Gattina, thanks for the photo feedback. I figured it was something like that after I tried twice! Have a great vacation!

Alanna, don't let anyone in Utah know that there *might* be other places that eat more Jello. The papers take great pleasure in reporting periodically how Utah has the highest Jello consumption in the nation, and all the natives (well, not me, but most of them) take great pride in it.

Kalyn,My mother traditionally made a molded jello "salad" for Thanksgiving, which I will be sharing on my blog soon. We kids called it "Mouldy Salad", much to my mom's chagrin. Yours is wonderfully low carb. I'm afraid my mom's recipe isn't. :(

I've always found it difficult to clearly photograph anything deeply red in color. I'm not sure why but red is always blurry. Maybe ask on FBS?

Hi Kalyn,I grew up with my grandmother's jello salads, especially at Thanksgiving, and with the exception of mini marshmallows, I LOVE them! This recipe sounds perfectly fabulous to me. Except for the sugar free part. My jello salads don't go unleaded. Now, something else to consider is that cranberries have a lot of natural pectin in them and will actually firm up pretty well, all on their own. So, you could do the same combination of flavors - throw in a few raspberries, heat everything up, let them cool in a mold, and voila.

Hi Maria,As I mentioned in the recipe, there is some sugar in the canned cranberries. If I'm remembering it right from last year I think I looked unsuccessfully for cranberry sauce with splenda (which it sounds like you might not like anyway.) This would be something that would be a "once in a while treat" for South Beach. I would eat this on a holiday, and with the combined other low-glycemic ingredients, I don't think it's a huge amount of sugar. I'm going to the store tonight, maybe I'll look and see just how much sugar was in the cranberry sauce, or see if there's a sugar-free alternative this year. Sorry, I don't have a better suggestions than that. You could make the salad with more jello and less cranberrry sauce though, if that would help.

Love your site. The recipes are consistently appealing and seductive! Just one comment. Unless there's some other vegetarian product being used, this (and any other "jello" recipes) should not be in the vegetarian section as gelatin is an animal derived product that no strict vegetarian would use. There are veg alternatives such as agar-agar, etc.

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